When young artists share their music on social media, they can only hope that their musical heroes will take even one second of their time to listen to them. Nashville Newcomer and TikTok sensation Callista Clark experienced this moment when Tim McGraw not only listened to her beautiful cover of his 1999 track, “My Best Friend,” but he also duetted the TikTok, sharing his thoughts.
“Wow” McGraw said in the encouraging video, followed by “go Callista!” and “Thank you for making my day.”
She may be young, but Clark is diving into the music industry in full force because she is ready for her music to be heard. In order to do this, she began posting videos of her singing online, something many try to do, but fail at. She hit a turning point in her career in 2017 when she posted a cover of Creedence Clearwater Revival’s 1971 hit, “Have You Ever Seen the Rain?” This video is what eventually landed her a record deal with Scott Borchetta Big Machine Records. Now, her name is getting picked up more and more by country music megastars such as McGraw, who see the potential in her.
In his caption, he wrote, “Love hearing these covers! @callistaclark crushed this one.”
@timmcgraw Love hearing these covers! @callistaclark crushed this one. #mybestfriend
This was a special moment for Clark who commented, “NO WAY!! This made MY year! 💜”
To show her excitement, she filmed herself reacting to the video of McGraw listening intently to her song. Her wide eyes and dropped jaw said it all, she was in awe.
“OH MY GOSH NO WAY AHHH,” she captioned the video.
@callistaclark #duet with @timmcgraw OH MY GOSH NO WAY AHHHH 🥲💜
McGraw has made it a point to react to several other young artists sharing their music on TikTok including, Alexandra Kay, Bear Bailey, Teddy Swims, and more.
At just 18 years old, Clark released her debut album, Real To Me, with Big Machine Records. This collection leads with her debut single, “It’s ‘Cause I Am,” which earned her airtime on Country radio. It didn’t take long before this led to her being named the most successful new artist debut of 2021. Before her name was all across country radio, she was just a talented girl from Zebulon, GA who loved to sing and play her musical instruments. Now, she has one album and an EP under her belt and she’s been featured as the only Country artist in Billboard’s annual “21 Under 21″ all genre list.
This weekend, Clark was invited to play at the Country to Country festival in London on the Town Square Stage, the spotlight stage and the BBC Radio 2 stage at Indigo. She was among other Nashville artists-on-the-rise including, Breland, Brittney Spencer, Seaforth, Matt Still, Tenille Arts and more.
“Thank you C2C festival for the warm welcome! What an honor to open the Town Square stage!! You sure know how to make a gal feel special,” she wrote on Instagram.
More and more festivals and major gigs are starting to pop up for this young artist, and she is embracing every second of it. Her fan base continues to grow both online and in person with each performance. Clark currently has 132.1K followers and 2.0M likes on TikTok, the platform that has given her career a major boost.